Forever chemical found at “really high” levels in blood of Lancashire residents

A banned forever chemical still in the ground

The village residents live near a chemical factory, and could be at risk of serious health conditions.

The substance, PFOA, is a type of forever chemical.

The forever chemicals are called as such because of their resilience to break down once entering the body or the environment.

The village has been investigated for years by the Environment Agency over contamination of soils and locally grown food, with the high levels traced to the nearby AGC Chemicals factory, which used PFOA to manufacture coating for frying pans until 2012.

"Ridiculously off the scale"

Sam, a local resident who lives with her husband, told the BBC they had both been told they were at increased risk of health impacts from PFOA.

However, it was her son's result that shocked her most, saying: "When we opened the results...it was like, my God, that is ridiculously off the scale.

"I feel guilty because I've introduced my children to that way of life. I know it isn't my fault, but the guilt is horrific.

"Knowing that I've offloaded what levels I probably had over the years into those children when I breastfed them, that's heartbreaking," she said.

After the World Health Organization classed it as a Group 1 carcinogen, PFOA has been banned in the UK since 2020.

The Environment Agency and Wyre Council have been testing the area around the AGC Chemicals factory since 2024, and have found PFOA at elevated levels in the soil, in eggs and in locally grown vegetables.

What happens next for the village

For a village that has already spent years waiting for answers about what is in its soil and its food, the blood test results now put a number on a risk residents had feared for a long time.

Sam's account of opening her son's results is, for now, the clearest sign of what that testing has meant on the ground in Thornton-Cleveleys.

Two allotment sites near the factory have already been closed and are due to be classified as contaminated land.

While testing continues, residents within 1km have been advised to stay away from fruit and vegetables grown in the area, the BBC's climate and science team reports.

Wider testings are being run jointly by the Environment Agency and Wyre Council, and covers soil, food and now blood, in a village whose name has become tied to the factory that stood beside it.

For families like Sam's, a risk that had previously been discussed in soil surveys and council reports has now become a number about their own bodies.